At the time of writing, I have 204 games listed on my Steam account. I’ve got these through bundles, sales, giveaways and generally there are a whole lot which I haven’t played at all. Despite this, I spend the bulk of my time playing Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings 2 and Football Manager. So yeah, I like overcomplex strategy games with dynamic systems for me to screw with. But there’s a whole bunch of games there to form the nucleus of a more interesting project rather than continuing to develop scouting plans for dynastic prospects.
I’ve also been looking for a more creative writing project to sink my teeth into and refresh the skills which have wilted in the face of far too many operations and maintenance manuals at work. So this should also help inform my own sensibilities and maybe even spark ideas for a game development project of my own. Therefore, for the benefit of you and of course for my own self-indulgence, I will be playing and critically analysing all the games in my Steam library from A(ce Combat) to Z(eno Clash). The handy menu on the right will let you navigate through the morass. The current fashion may be to yell in a British accent at YouTube, but I like the written word. Words are nice.
I aim to be the kind of critic who thinks more about the systems, concepts and philosophies underlying a game rather than whether a game has a FOV slider, 60 FPS and really sick guns. I enjoy the ideas posited at places like Rock Paper Shotgun, Three Moves Ahead and Vice Waypoint. Whether I can live up to this when the closest I’ve come to a liberal arts degree is ‘Engineering Planning, Design and Communication 1005’ is for you to judge. Lets lay down some ground rules:
- Every game presently in my Steam library must be critically responded to, unless it is one of the limited exceptions below. These won’t be strictly scored reviews but could be personal reactions ala New Games Journalism, examinations of particular things a game does well, deep dives into particular systems, how it fits into a particular context, etc
- Each game will be played for a minimum of 1 hour, unless completion comes first. With this many games to get through, the series will never get anywhere if I try to 100% every one. But at the same time I want to give each game a good chance to prove its worth. However, forcing myself to slog through to the end of a game I hate will increase the chances of this project being abandoned.
- Where I’ve already played a game, I have the free choice to restart or continue where I left off. In practice it will depend on how long since I last played it.
- Where I have multiple editions of a game, I’ll play only the more recent version (ie Bioshock Remastered, not Bioshock)
- Complete games only, no prototypes (curse you Double-Fine, for filling up my Steam library with this stuff!)
- If a game is no longer playable (due to Games For Windows Live, server death, lack of players for online only games, system incompatibility or similar) then I won’t play it.
- Any new games added to my library after this date must also be played, but I’m free to jump out of order for those.
So here’s the current list:
- Ace Combat Assault Horizon Enhanced Edition
- Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug
- Arcade Game Series: Galaga
- Arcade Game Series: Pac-Man
- Attractio
- Audiosurf
- Awesomenauts
- Axel & Pixel
- The Banner Saga
- The Basement Collection
- Bastion
- Beat Hazard
- Big Pharma
- The Binding of Isaac
- BioShock Remastered
- BioShock 2 Remastered
- BIT.TRIP.BEAT
- Borderlands
- Brutal Legend
- Bulletstorm
- Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
- Capsized
- Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
- Cave Story+
- Cities In Motion
- Cities: Skylines
- Closure
- Company of Heroes (New Steam Version)
- Costume Quest
- Crusader Kings II
- Crysis 2 Maximum Edition
- Darksiders Warmastered Edition
- Dead Space
- Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
- Defense Grid: The Awakening
- Democracy 3
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Devil Daggers
- DiRT 2
- DiRT 3: Complete Edition
- DiRT Showdown
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Dungeon Defenders
- Dungeonland
- Dungeons 2
- Dungeons of Dredmor
- Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Elegy For A Dead World
- Else Heart.Break()
- Empire: Total War
- Endless Legend
- Endless Space
- English Country Tune
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Premium Edition
- Europa Universalis III
- Europa Universalis IV
- Evoland 2
- Faerie Solitaire
- Far Cry 3
- Final Fantasy VII
- Football Manager 2012
- Football Manager 2014
- Football Manager 2016
- Freedom Force
- Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich
- Frozen Synapse
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
- Game Dev Tycoon
- GRID Autosport
- Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
- Grotesque Tactics 2 – Dungeons and Donuts
- Hack ‘n’ Slash
- Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead
- Hotline Miami
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Intrusion 2
- Invisible, Inc.
- Jamestown
- Just Cause 2
- Kerbal Space Program
- Kings Bounty: Armored Princess
- L.A. Noire
- The Last Remnant
- Legend of Grimrock
- Leviathan: Warships
- LIMBO
- Little Inferno
- Mafia
- Mafia II
- Magicka
- Mass Effect 2
- Medal of Honor
- Medieval II: Total War
- Metro 2033
- Mirror’s Edge
- The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
- Monkey Island 2: Special Edition
- Mount & Blade: Warband
- Napoleon: Total War
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst
- NBA 2K10
- NBA 2K11
- NEO Scavenger
- Offspring Fling!
- Oil Rush
- OlliOlli
- Orcs Must Die
- Out of the Park Baseball 16
- Out of the Park Baseball 17
- Overlord II
- Pac-Man 256
- Papers, Please
- Pillars of Eternity
- The Polynomial
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Prison Architect
- Pro Cycling Manager 2012
- Project CARS
- Proteus
- Psychonauts
- Punch Club
- Puzzle Quest
- Qvadriga
- Rayman Legends
- Rayman Origins
- Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
- Red Faction: Armageddon
- Revenge of the Titans
- Rhythm Zone
- Road to Balhalla
- Robocraft
- RollerCoaster Tycoon: Deluxe
- RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack
- Rome: Total War – Alexander
- Runestone Keeper
- Rust
- Saints Row: The Third
- Sanctum
- The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
- SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics – Shining Force
- Serious Sam 3: BFE
- Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
- Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
- Shadowrun: Hong Kong – Extended Edition
- Shank 2
- The Showdown Effect
- Sid Meier’s Civilization III: Complete
- Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
- Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization
- Sid Meier’s Civilization V
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
- Sid Meier’s Pirates!
- SimCity 4 Deluxe
- Snapshot
- Sniper Elite V2
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
- Sonic CD
- Sonic Generations
- Sportsfriends
- Stacking
- Stellaris
- Stronghold Crusader 2
- Super Meat Boy
- Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
- Symphony
- The Talos Principle
- Terraria
- This War of Mine
- Thomas Was Alone
- Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers
- Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
- Train Simulator
- Tribes: Ascend
- Tropico 3 – Steam Special Edition
- Tropico 4
- Unity of Command
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Vertiginous Golf
- Victor Vran
- VVVVVVV
- The Walking Dead
- War of the Roses
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
- Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
- Warlock – Master of the Arcane
- World of Goo
- WRC 4 FIA World Rally Championship
- X-COM: UFO Defense
- X-COM: Terror from the Deep
- X-COM: Apocalypse
- X-COM: Interceptor
- X-COM: Enforcer
- X-Plane 10
- X3: Terran Conflict
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- XCOM 2
- Zeno Clash
So there’s a nice sized helping of strategy games as well as a bunch of other genres to help break things up and some just plain oddities (Car Mechanic Simulator 2015, anyone?). This is clearly a fairly monumental project (and my record with completion of monumental projects is not great), but hopefully one which will prove enlightening and help to uncover some diamonds in the rough.
For the tech heads, I’m running an Intel Core i5-2500K, nVidia GTX 960, Windows 10, 16GB of RAM and I have an Xbox 360 controller for gamepad-suited titles. So while I might not be able to run the most recent games on absolute maximum settings, everything should run fine.
This page will not be updated on any particular schedule, because I’ll need to fit this around my other commitments and some games take much longer than others. I also don’t have any social media for this, so if you want to follow the series then I dunno, bookmark the page and check it occasionally? In the unlikely event that it develops an audience I’ll change that, but at this stage this is a personal, self-indulgent project that I’m only really publishing because I can.
So without further ado, ladies, gentlemen and anybody else, may I present to you the first cab off the rank: